The best way to start this story is this:

One night, I couldn't sleep.
I couldn't sleep because I head a craving.
The craving was so...so strong, I stood up.

I stood up with the biggest craving a human could have.

I wanted to do crime!

Yes, a big fat piece of crime!
No murderer, no kidnapping, no bribing...NO!
I wanted to do a B&E!
(Yes, Dane Cook and me have something in comen, who would have guessed! B&E)

BREAKING AND ENTERING!

Breaking into the HQ of CDV and get me the editor that was used to create Lula3d, Vision Engine Editor - VEdit 2 -, that was the plan.!

Why, you ask?
Because I wanted to walk through the Wet Rock level.
.
And I was ready for this sh*t man, I was ready!
I started up my computer, visited the CDV homepage and looked up the address of the publisher. Hacked that information into Google-Earth and took a very, very, very close look at that building.

But, there was of course a hook. I live in North-Germany and CDV-HQ is settled in South-Germany, so this would have been more than a one-day-job.

Now you might wonder: "What? Risking a B&E just to walk in a Lula 3d level?

Let me tell you:

1. What do you mean with "just"?

2. The level is in the game, the level is THE most classic Lula/WET location, and it is NOT walkable???

No....this is:

a) No fun
b) Cruel
c) Just not right
d) Not fair to the fans!!!

I visited the programmers-site for the VEdit2 -editor, but they took my request for a demo-version down once already. I looked for the editor in different sources, but I couldn't find it.

Full of frustration, I opend up the level directorie of Wet Rock and tried to come up with a way to hack into the level.

And than....than I saw IT!
I saw it just with a simple blink of my eyes.
I hoped for it...and it was THERE!
Since that day, I know the feeling of an instant granted wish!

I looked at the Lula3d Files hunderds of times...but never saw it... till that day, till I had the craving.

There it was, an .sav file!!! Right in the NewOrleans level root.

Now you are thinking: "So what, a simple savegame-state, what is the big fuzz?"

The big fuzz is: The savegames you can creat in Lula 3d are saved in a special folder three folder-levels higher , NOT in the specific level root!

For a few seconds, I stared at that .sav file and my mind couldn't grab the meaning of it.

"Did I copy a savegame in that directory some time ago? NO........!"

And than it hit me: O-M-G!!! This must be a savegame from the creator of the level, from inside the Wet Rock level....FROM INSIDE!!!

Sure, this could be anything...maybe not even a working savegame...but anyway, with a stronger beating heart, I copied the file into the original savegame-folder and stared the game.

Game is loading....loading....loading...Options are coming up... Load level....Wet Rock.... 3xRETURN pressing action.... loading screens comes up.....GOOD... loading beam is moving.... EVEN BETTER.... loading beam is allready done... making a promiss to the higher power.... and.... BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM

Lula is standing in her Wet Rock Hotel room, I tipped the moving keys...AND SHE MOOOOOOOOVED !!!!

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!

OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG...I couldn't believe it!

But there was a cloud at the horizont, the door to Lulas hotel room was closed, what if Lula was trapped in this room for good?

Didn't bother me at all, if it was so, I would have found a way to brake free. But this wasn't neccassary. With the power of a granted wish, I steped up to the door and walked right through it!

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!! ...again....

The mapper of this level, didn't put a blocking volume in the door frame! Good for me, because, doors can be tricky in Lula 3d...especialy, when you just have the Windows editor to modify them.

I steped out at the balustrade and the pool water waved up to me refreshingly, quiet, but refreshingly.

Bad news is: There isn't any sound in this map, there is no nice nightsky in it, and the couples in the rooms aren't moving.

...that is bad...but only a bit.... finally ... I was able to walk through Wet Rock... and finally YOU can do it too

NEW ORLEANS

Still smilling and wandering through Wet Rock, I wondered: "Maybe there are Savegames in other Levels too....maybe there is a savegame for the New Orleans level.

My curiosity made me leave Wet Rock. And really, I found a save game in the New Orleans level folder. I copied, I started, I I loaded.
And BAM! Here I was, walking through New Orleans. What ended as a crapy day turned out to be one of the biggest nights - in a Lula 3d kind of way-.

After some downsizing of some blockinvolumes, I was able to run to the ends of each street, but to my surprise, there was no way, or even just a glimps the cemetery or the big swamp.

I looked out for it, I even thought, maybe the street that leads to those scenes is invisible, but no, there was no way to reach those places.
I checked the level in the editor, I found "graves" and "tombs" so, those models ARE in this level for sure. I looked at the coordinats...and MAN, that was a shock.

The most farout place you can reach on the NewOlreans streets is:
10.000 / 1200 (to the right (x)/ forward (y) )

The grave has the coordinats
10872 / 56172

I though: "This...this must be a mistake.... 56 000 in the y-axis? 56 000!!!!

To understand, a car has a length of 500.

THAT IS FAR FAR FAR AWAY....especially if ther is nothing than air between you and the promised land!!!

I pondered and I pondered.... 56 000 ....that is like: "Hey, I am planning to go to the moon, BY FOOT!"

After some thinking, I came up with this sick idea. Lets take the three movable cars from this level, and build some kind of pontoon bridge.
But than, I rememberd...the distance is 56 000 !!!, so I crunched the numbers and tried to figure out, how long this would take. Three cars, one standing still, because, Lula is standing on it, and the two other cars placing in front of it, for a distance of 56 000 y-units.

My guess was 51.
You are probably asking: "51 what?"
Well, 51 this:
- Changing the nunbers in the level file
- save the new level file
- starting the game
- loading the level
- let Lula walk over three cars
- save her position
- ending the level
- ending the game.
...and this 51times...

And if you think now: "This is sick!"

Beliefe me, I went through it....it is SICK!

Even sicker, if you know that the FarClipDistance, the range you have to come close, so the game engine let you see, the object, is 5000. This means, For a long time, I couldn't be sure if I would reach land at all!

Slowly I moved forward, soon the buildings of New Orleans faded into nothing and than, for a long long time, it was just me, Lula and three moving cars in the endless space of this level. Thank God, there was something on TV.

There was a time, I doubted there was a cemetery at all....doubted the car are moving at all... but I made a list with the progress in y-coordinates, and I knew, the cemetery IS THERE in the shooting game...it has to be out there.

And after 38 times of chaning the numbers, loading the level, walking a little bit, saving again .... I SAW LAND!!!
I felt like Christoph Columbus.

After 49 changes...I steped on the holy ground of the cemetery. I conquered this land for all Lula3d-Fans!

THE SWAMP

The graves were mine...and the swamp was my next goal. I checked the coordinates, and I was shocked!
It turned out the distance would be 48 000 on the x-axis AND on the y-axis, I would have to go 20 000 units BACK!!!!!

To make this story shorter, thank God, I had a savegame AND an copy of the level-file from that moment, I had reached the first half of the way... so axactly what I needed!

A little tricky to turn arround the row of cars 90 degrees, but in the end, I was once again on may way through time and infinite space.

I was surprised to see land just after 10 times loading the modified level, but it still took 21 times to reach the land and set foot into the swamp.

Go and wander around in it yourself...I know there is a model for a crokodile in this level, but till today, I was not able to make it visible!

THE RESIDENCE AT NIGHT

Of course I had to check out this savegame. But beware, get ready for some disapointments. No sky, no moving characters, no sounds at all. To bad, a little party time would haven been nice.

But at least you can walk into the cool pool, check out some characters (you can see all three tripplets in one level etc.

Well, that is it...my Lula3d-promissed-land-hack-story!

HAVE FUN WITH THE SAVEGAMES

SICKBOXX